Apollyon | Diary of an Eager Reader

Title: Apollyon
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher/Year: Spencer Hill Press, 4/09/2013
Length: 360 pages
Series: The Covenant #4

i definitely hate having to wait for a next installment to come out, and especially after reading Elixir which was book #3.5, i felt like the wait was too long.

We left off from Elixir where Alex had ‘Awakened’ and she had the eyes of the apollyon and some of the craziness. the issue here though as having Seth around as the First, Aiden, Marcus and Apollo among all of the others had to do their best to keep Alex’s location a secret and keep Seth away. If Seth found Alex and was able to transfer her power to him, then he would become the God Killer and that was BAD NEWS!

The even bigger issue here though was not that Set was entirely power hungry on his own, he was under the influence of Lucien (Alex’s stepfather no less) and some other powerful forces and was trying his best to be the undoing of all things that were ‘normal’ and standard in the word.

So Apollyon opens up with Alex being caged in for both her own good and for the good of everyone else since she was still ‘connected’ to Seth through their Apollyon stuff, and the Elixir had worn off. Aiden was trying to ‘get through’ to Alex because he loves her so much and knows that she’s strong enough to some how find a better resolution to what’s going on.

Apollo comes in and out of this story as well, being the lineage of Alex and because he’s trying to protect her and figure out what the next steps should be. Due to any number of circumstances (mainly being trickery), psycho Apollyon Alex escapes her cage and tries to make a run for it. Aiden of course isn’t having this and some how manages to tackle her and through his love and persistence in the message that Alex is stronger than Seth, she some how manages to break the bond that she has with Seth and is almost the Alex that everyone came to know and love before this all happened.

Now if only that was the end of things right? Well, it’s determined that Seth, Lucien and whatever God is working with them are up to no good, killing thousands of people both half-bloods and mortals alike. They need to be stopped and Alex has to go on the quest to figure out how that can be done.

This book takes through the underworld again, through a lot of death and destruction. it’s expected that some of the characters that we know and love will die, and some will be re-encarnated so to speak as well.

I think the best part of this story is that throughout the series there have been a few less than trust worthy folks and in Apollyon, we start to figure out why. there’s a great unveiling at the end of this book which really leads into the expectations that we will now have waiting until January 2014 for Sentinel to come out.

enjoy!

Gotta love those novellas – they give you just enough to curb the hunger, but definitely not enough to sustain you until the next full length story is out.

Elixir picks up at the point in time where we know that Alex has awakened, and that she’s joined with Seth – by her actions/words and mostly by the color of her eyes. Aiden and everyone else have the hard task of both keeping her safe/sedated, themselves safe, and keeping her location hidden so that they can figure out a way to break the bond between her and Seth. Yup – that means that we are 100% clear on the fact that seth is a bad apple and only wants to take his power in evil and bad directions.

The hardest part of this story is that in book 3, we finally got to the point where Aiden and Alex were able to come to terms with their love for one another, and they actually shared some much needed and awaited intimacy. That’s all gone to pot though since the Alex that they all have with them isn’t the same one.

Aiden is forced to take drastic measures, at the urging of the Gods and give Alex the ‘Elixir’. If you remember, this is the same potion in theory that is given to half-bloods that are put into a life of servitude. It basically makes you unable to do much of anything of your own will….and Aiden is very fearful of this. The issue being that this is the only way that they can all buy time to figure out a lasting way to break the bond between the Apollyons.

the question now is – does it work? is Alex really able to keep Seth away, what’s the motive behind Seth’s evil ambition and what’s going to come of it? We know that there are plots to take over the various Covenants ….and will that happen? Who’s on what side and which side will win?

Now i just can’t wait until Apollyon – the next book in the series to come out. I need to know if Aiden’s love for Alex is enough to stand by her, and help her through this. I need to know if Seth will find a way to control Alex and bring her down….and i need to know what is going to become of the Pures, the Half Bloods and the Humans……